Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Right to Life For Special Needs Babies

A woman died from a late-term abortion a few blocks from my old apartment last week. She died at Shady Grove Memorial Hospital--the place where I used to take my kids for their ER trips.

I know we don't have all the facts yet, and there is a multiple issues to be concerned about--but here are the facts that I do have. Jennifer Morbelli was in her late 20s. Married to her college sweetheart. She was 33 weeks pregnant with her daughter named Madison Leigh. She lived in New Rochelle, NY. According to sources this was a "wanted pregnancy" and one blog linked to her a baby registry in her name at Babies R Us.

She came to Maryland with her husband and her parents to get a late-term abortion after learning that her daughter suffered from "fetal anomalies."

After receiving the abortion, her abortionist left the state. She suffered complications, couldn't reach him by telephone and then was taken to the local hospital ER. She died at 10 AM in the morning.

There is a lot of concern. I think even the lax abortion laws in the State of Maryland were broken in this case. I hope the State Attorney's Office will find justice in this matter.

I want to talk about something underneath the alleged crime. I want to talk about the social morals in our country.

In our Society right now, it is "okay" to have an abortion as a married woman. It's is "okay" to have an abortion when your baby has special needs.

Now, I have no idea what health problems baby Madison had, and it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if that baby was going to die inside the womb, or 2 hours outside of it. It doesn't matter if they suspected that she would live with horrible suffering for years.

I am the mother of a NICU child.

I am NOT saying that watching your baby die in front of you is easy. I'm NOT saying that a Children's Hospitals is where you want to be.

But having been sent by God into that field of spiritual battle, I wish more of us parents of sick children said "having a baby with a serious risk of death" is NOT the end of the world.

With Christ, all things are possible. EVERY Mom with Jesus Christ has the grace to love her child through an early infant death.

EVERY MOM

There's not "some special Moms" who were made to be the Mothers of Special Needs Kids.

Every Mom can do it.

And I'm really sorry that Baby Madison died in an abortion --instead of in a hospital room surrounded by doctors who tried to save her life and gave her Mommy and Daddy tissues, and hugs, and silent support.

And I'm really sorry that Jennifer died. I don't blame her. I know that I was scared to DEATH to have a special needs infant. I didn't think I could do it. The only reason I did it was because I didn't have a choice. My Roman Catholic Faith took away my "choice" to abort my child and I'm so grateful. Because some choices don't belong on the table --ever--especially 2 weeks after a horrible pre-natal medical diagnosis when all a Mother sees is the bad news and she haven't had a chance yet to meet her baby girl.

It makes me sad that this scared Mother didn't hide her abortion. She did it within the presence of her husband and her parents. That hurts.

I have sat in the room multiple times where (mostly nurses, not doctors) but where medical people have told me that I had to "abort" due to negative pre-natal diagnosis. It is solely by the grace of God that I have conceived my children after becoming Catholic. In those scary moments, I had the backing of my entire Faith to fight to get my "choice" to remain a Mother of my child respected. There is nothing I can do to say thank you to the Lord my God, but to hug my babies every day and pray for others.

Mary, the Mother of God, pray for us. We commend Baby Madison's soul to your care and pray for her Mother's soul. We also pray for the healing of the hearts of the baby's father and her grandparents.

What is a Third Order Carmelite?

A Third Order Discalced Carmelite is a person who responds to an invitation from God to live a life of contemplative prayer within the modern world.

Prayer to Saint Teresa of Avila

Teach us to pray with you with all our hearts:

"I am yours Lord.

I was born for you.

What do you want of me?"

My No Comment Policy

I love silence. I love calmness. I like to avoid all inter-comment box drama. If one of my posts touched your heart, I'm happy to respond to you in an one-on-one manner. I answer all emails sent to abigail.b.benjamin@gmail.com.